In the dining area, Emeco Navy chairs tuck into a custom fir table with metal legs. Lapalma Thin bar stools offer extra seating around the kitchen counter. Appliances include a Wolf propane range, integrated Subzero fridge, and Miele dishwasher.

The site needed a path that would let residents easily ascend from the bank to the house. The architects created one by simply replicating the way they had naturally walked up the site the first time they visited. The result is a meandering trail that directs visitors to the landscape’s different features — whether a majestic Arbutus tree, a private stone beach, or a wildflower clearing.

“They wanted the new cabin to make a ‘L’ shape with the older cabin, but I convinced them to mimic the old cabin on the opposite side,” architect D’Arcy Jones says. “So the new site has two buildings across from each other, like an equal sign.” Birch trees grow between the cabins in a shared courtyard.

Photo by Patrick Barta

The bathroom was similarly designed to make the most of exterior views.

The path stops at the master bedroom, where a completely glazed end wall frames the wildflower clearing. “This pathway purposefully links together the architecture of internal rooms and outdoor spaces with discoveries of the site’s varied landscape,” the architects say.

“The new house is not shy to look across at the old house, where you can see old rough stucco on one building, and then the same stucco on our new building,” Jones says.

In the living room, a Minotti Held lounge and ottoman center around a Rumford fireplace with a custom metal surround. Fir millwork warms the space.

The house cantilevers out over the landscape for unimpeded views. “It’s canted wall defines the main entrance and creates a covered space for unpacking and packing—a familiar family ritual,” Howat says.

Light streams in through the kitchen from massive, floor-to-ceiling windows that offer peaceful views of the outside foliage.

“The goal I had was for a new building to be sympathetic to a quirky, soulful little cabin that was not modern in many ways,” Jones says. He mirrored the original home by incorporating the same cement stucco, painted pure white, with Douglas fir soffits. Two Douglas fir trees had to be cut down during construction, and they were repurposed throughout the home—including for this bench.

“Their lives revolve around ocean activities, reading, music, and good food and wine,” Jones says of the owners. “The new house I designed is just for them," such as with this sheltered outdoor areas where gear can be stored; the ceilings above are also Douglas fir.

“One large room is overrated, and a bedroom opening off a great room doesn’t work well if someone sleeps in or goes to bed early,” Jones says. “So there are halls, which I think need to make a comeback.” Quartz countertops and Douglas fir cabinets surround the kitchen sink and faucet by BLANCO Canada.

The exterior materials reflect the surrounding environment. Vertical, stained cedar siding, installed in a random pattern, echoes the dark bark of nearby douglas firs, while horizontal, clear-stained red cedar siding similarly recalls the lighter trees. The metal roof and aluminum curtain windows add a modern edge.

The switchback path continues inside, leading up the stairwell alongside a central concrete wall and then curving around to the bedrooms.

A Toto toilet and bathroom sink, with a faucet by GROHE, are illuminated by a Leucos light fixture. Birgit Piskor designed the sculpture in the garden beside the shower.

“You go down a hall and turn left to go to bed, to block noise from the living room,” Jones says. “And each space in the house looks out onto something different, in all directions.” The bed is custom-made by Jones, which is covered with linens from Bespoke Design in Victoria, B.C. A black Tolomeo mini table lamp sits on the nightstand.

“[The house] avoids the mass or heaviness of too much timber construction, so with a few hidden steel beams, it seems to float and hover over the site in a delicate way,” Jones says. Salal, a native plant to the Pacific Northwest, and fern act as the site’s groundcover.

Canvas Butterfly chairs on the outside porch offer a place to chat into the late night hours.

The two new cabins, also by Jensen & Skodvin Architects, are built on a steep hillside. They are held aloft by narrow steel rods and clad in a lumber stained to blend into the natural surroundings.

superrkül dubbed this project the Stealth Cabin because it's hidden in the landscape and will continue to recede in view over time. Photo by Shai Gil.

Located on a steep site with limited suitable building ground, the firm decided to cantilever the home over the hillside, which has the effect of helping the structure blend in with the landscape.

“We really wanted to capture the ruinous quality of this old building rather than do something overtly new,” says Greg Blee, founding partner at Blee Halligan Architects. Before construction could begin, however, he and Halligan had to patch the remaining walls using stones found in the nearby river. Wherever a wall had collapsed, the designers inserted framing to create windows and doors. For the roof, they turned to the original tiles. “My father’s terrible at throwing things away,” Blee says. “We took the tiles off 30 years ago, as it was too dangerous to have them up there. They’ve been sitting in the fields ever since, and this was our last chance to use them.”

Set in the lush Wisconsin forest, this neatly stacked cabin was built vertically in order to minimize the amount of grading and landscaping necessary for construction. Photo by: Narayan Mahon

The winglike dips in the roofline situate and hold the house against the region’s brutal winds. As the outdoor chairs attest, lifestyles here pass easily between inside and out; a long hike and a good swim are always just steps away

The residents, who live in Calgary, frequently entertain, and with 16 beds, bunks, and twin-bed-wide window seats, there is no shortage of places to sleep.

A footbridge leading from the hillside to the Douglas House's uppermost level.

The building takes advantage of passive heating and cooling, thanks to Blee and Halligan's strategic design to capture the most sunlight in the winter and provide the most shade in the summer. The above-ground glass facade faces east and draws in the daylight, but when the sun proves too strong, whoever is staying in the structure can close the internal shutters to beat the heat.

"We did our best to tuck the buildings into the site—the goal was to get up high on a perch. It was a matter of setting that elevation and working back down with the topography," says architectural designer Riley Pratt.

Sævik compares her house to a contemplative hideout. “It’s very quiet,” she says. “You can concentrate and let thoughts fly.” Her favorite summer pastimes include reading, painting, drawing, yoga, and “just sitting and feeling the forest,” she says.

Canoe Bridge Vancouver, British Columbia PWL Partnership 131 feet Vancouver’s Olympic Village melds a modern, urban vibe with a working edge, reminiscent of the site’s past. The Canoe Bridge meshes too, its true-to-life canoe form offering a modernly smooth yet ruggedly distinct design that both contrasts with and complements the seawall walking path.

The firm’s principals describe the Museum of Anthropology at University of British Columbia as “a West Coast icon worth the trek.” Aside from the incredible collection of archaeological objects, the glass and concrete building by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson is equally impressive.

Two El Dorado principals, Douglas Stockman and David Dowell, enlisted the elbow grease of students in their fifth-year design studio at Kansas State University to help design and fabricate the bunkbeds that line the cabin walls.

Located on the Blaeberry River near Golden, British Columbia, this glass cabin was designed by Form and Forest.

Polished concrete with radiant heating comprise the cabin’s interior floors, and its ceilings are made of Douglas fir. Jones designed the custom windows, which were fabricated by contractor Ian Maclean.

Wheelhaus founder and CEO Jamie Mackay creates prefabs with the same quality and durability of the log cabins he grew up with, while also incorporating his values of green production and modern design. Although it takes about four months to construct his prefabricated properties, it takes about a week for the home to be delivered, and then three to five days for the house to be set up on site.